Matthew 13:31-33; 44-52 The Kingdom of Heaven is like what? Sermon preached for South Macon Charge July 20 and 27, 2014

I have to admit that when I first read this scripture I was scared, worried and frustrated.  Having grown up in a tradition where Christianity was many times reduced to what you have to do to get your ticket into heaven and your fire insurance policy to keep you out of hell, I have spent much of my adult life avoiding the subject of hell altogether.  Images of burning furnaces, gnashing teeth and wailing people are not images I want to leave people with when I proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom.  I don’t want people to come to know Christ because they are afraid of what will happen to them in the after life.  I want people to come to know Christ because they have experienced the extravagant Love God pours out on all of us.  I want people to come to know Christ because they have experienced Grace and Mercy.  I want people to come to know Christ because they have experienced the support of fellow humanity within a community who follow the teachings of Christ.  So, I am going to confess ahead of time that I am not going to tackle the questions of heaven and hell in this sermon.  That is a very small portion of this large text that has much more to do about what it means to share in the Kingdom of God.  You might say, But Kelly, the scripture here says that Jesus is telling us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.  You are right, that is what it says.  You see Matthew wrote for a primarily Hebrew audience.  In Jewish life it was seen as an abomination to speak God’s name outloud so Matthew replaces the word God with Heaven, the place from which God reins.  If you look at the equivalent scripture in the Gospel of Luke, Luke uses the phrase “Kingdom of God.”  But isn’t heaven the Kingdom of God?”  Certainly it is.  Don’t forget though the prayer Jesus models for us.  “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on EARTH as it is in heaven.” (insert reference)  The realization of that little phrase “on earth”  has got to be the most transformational realization I have had in my Spiritual journey.  We can have and should strive to have the Kingdom of God rein here on earth as it is in heaven.  Our prayer should daily be for God to bring heaven to earth.  When we turn on the news and our screens are filled with the evidence of evil in this world, it is sometimes hard to have hope that this can even happen.  This week our screens and radios have been filled with the news of the shot down Malaysian airliner that claimed 298 lives, 80 of them children.  This occurring just 4 months after another Malaysian airliner disappeared and still has not been found.  The Israeli-Gaza conflict continues taking the lives of 4 innocent children this week.  As I wrote a prayer for peace on my facebook page this week one response was “there will be no peace until Jesus comes.”  Yet, in the midst of these tragedies stories of kingdom living come out.  Churches open their doors to give people a place to come and pray and grieve and find comfort.  Memorials are erected, hotels open their doors to family members as a gathering place of hospitality to grieving family members as they wait.  Our passage in Romans reminds us that God works good in all things.  So, my prayer will always be to live a life that will aid bringing about the Kingdom of God.  To live lives that will bring about the rein of God on earth we must understand what it means to be the Kingdom of God and that is what Jesus is teaching in chapter 13 of Matthew. 

                First, Jesus tells two parables about the growth of the kingdom from small beginnings into something large.  In the parable of the mustard seed he describes the smallest of seeds growing into a large tree.  In the parable of the yeast he describes a small amount of yeast multiplying the size of dough.  The interesting thing about both of these things, mustard plants, and yeast is they can be seen both in a positive light and a negative light.  I could eat my weight in yeast rolls.  Missy just made  some for the luncheon on Friday and oh my they were good.  There is nothing better than a freshly buttered yeast roll at a steak house.  Yet we know that yeast can be a source of infection and disease as well.  One of the things I found out about the mustard seed is that mustard is much like what we know of Kuzu today.  The seed germinates immediately and spreads rapidly and once one mustard seed gets planted it is nearly impossible to get rid of it in that place (GOBD and Wikipedia)  These two objects of these parables have the propensity to be used for both good and bad. Jesus points to the good aspects of each.  Jesus sees the good.  In a Kingdom where God reins it is the good that shines through.  In the Kingdom where God reins something that starts out small turns into something that is big.  In the Kingdom where God reins , like the birds who find shelter in the branches of the mustard plant, people can find shelter and comfort, respite from the worries of the world.  In the Kingdom where God reins there is hope in the midst of tragedy.  It doesn’t take much.  Just like the old campfire song says, it only takes a spark to get a fire going.  As Kingdom livers and Kingdom seekers we are to be that spark in the world. 

                Next Jesus tells two parables about treasure.  First, he states the kingdom of God is like a treasure.  Once found it is buried and the person finding it goes and sells all he has to buy the field that the treasure is in so that it is his.  This parable suggests to us that the rein of God should be so valuable to us that obtaining it should be worth all that we have.  Can we say that today.  Can we say that the most important thing in our life, worth all that we have, is seeking and working for the rein of God, on earth as it is in heaven? 

                The second of the two parables says that the Kingdom of God is like a merchant who finds a pearl and goes and sales all he has to obtain it.  Many people see these two parables as saying basically the same thing.  I don’t.  The first parable says the Kingdom of God is like a treasure.  The second one says the Kingdom of God is like a merchant.  A merchant is one who goes out and looks for goods to sell to others.  In this parable the merchant finds a pearl and sells all he has to obtain the pearl.  Perhaps humanity it the pearl and Jesus is the merchant.  In the Kingdom where God reins people are seen for the treasure that they are.  It brings to mind other parables of Jesus such as the woman with the lost coin, the shepherd with the lost sheep, the story of the prodigal son.  In God’s eyes each and every one of us are worth being sought after and each and every one of us is greatly treasured. If we are to be Kingdom seekers and Kingdom Livers we must view each person that we come in contact with the eyes of the merchant, eyes that see the pearl.  One thing I read about pearls is that unlike other gems which have to be polished and refined to bring out its beauty the pearl is beautiful as it comes right out of the oyster, it is naturally beautiful.  With God’s eyes we see the beauty in everyone just as they were created to be. 

                This brings us to the final parable Jesus speaks about in this chapter of Matthew.  The parable of the net.  He says the Kingdom of heaven is like a net that gathers up lots of fish.  The fishermen pull in the net and began sorting the good from the bad.  I think it is important here to focus on the net.  When a fisherman casts a net out, he brings in all the fish that get into the net.  ALL fish.  When we are kingdom livers and kingdom seekers it is not our job to judge which fish are the good fish and which fish are the bad fish.  This parable is much like the parable of the wheat and weeds which Janet will get into more next week.  The point is that God is the only judge of who is good and bad.  As workers in the Kingdom we are to accept all that enter into the net.  We are to treat all people as members of the Kingdom with those fruits of the spirit that we talked about last time.  With patience and kindness and gentleness.  It is God’s business who is righteous and who is evil.  It is our business to accept all into the net, to see all as pearls, to seek the kingdom of God for the treasure that it is willing to give all to obtain it for in the Kingdom of God we find refuge. 

                Jesus ends this section by asking the disciples if they understand and then giving them the responsibility for spreading the Kingdom of God through the spreading of these lessons!  That is our responsibilities as disciples of Jesus Christ. As seekers of the Kingdom we need to be a place of refuge, we need to be in search of the treasure that is in each human being, we need to value the kingdom of God more than anything else, we need to accept all into the net and we need to teach this to others as we spread the good news of God’s rein, growing the kingdom from something small to something big. 

Go from this place today casting your nets wide!    

Taking Root in Good Soil: Matthew 13:3-9 Sermon Preached for South Macon Charge July 6 and 13, 2014

            This morning our passage of scripture takes us to a lake shore where crowds had gathered to listen to Jesus.  In fact there was such a big crowd gathering that Jesus got in a boat and pushed out into the lake and taught from the boat.  Jesus uses a method to teach called a parable.  You see the gospel, good news that Jesus had to bring to the people was a message that the people had trouble understanding.  Jesus spoke of a kingdom, the Kingdom of God, in a way that no one would understand a kingdom to be.  It was a kingdom where power was suppressed by servanthood.  It was a kingdom in which there was no male or female, Jew nor

Greek, servant or free person, democrat or republican, white or black and we could go on.  In the Kingdom in which God reigns everyone is equal and everyone is loved.  The first is last, the last is first. Peace is sought in all things.  For Jesus to get the people to understand he had to speak in stories that related to their everyday lives, thus he taught in parables and this parable is about farming.  This parable can be approached from many different directions.  Many people read themselves into the position of the farmer, the one who sows the seeds of God’s word through the spreading of the message of this new kind of Kingdom.  That would not be a wrong reading for we are all as followers of Christ called to spread the word, to share the good news.  However, as I meditated over this passage of scripture I began reading myself into the different soils.  I studied plant life and what I began to recognize is that our Christian journey is much the same as the cycle of plant life from seed to flower to fruit and back to seeds which scatter and begin the cycle all over again. 

            It’s been a long time since I was in elementary school learning about plant life so I had to do a little research.  What I found out is that there is 5 stages to a plants life.  First there is a seed that is planted in the ground. There are certain conditions that need to take place for that seed to move to the next phase.  The seed must be planted in good soil.  The most important thing about the soil is that it is damp and that it is warm.  The seed must get wet to begin to develop it’s roots which is the next phase.  If the seed is planted in good soil, is warm enough and receives enough moisture it moves into the next phase of developing roots.  The root system is very important, without it nothing else can happen.  The roots deliver water to the rest of the plant, life giving water.  The roots keep the plant firmly in the ground.  The roots keep the soil from washing away.  The next phase of the plants life is that it develops stems and leaves.  It is through the stems and leaves that the plant receives food necessary for developing the flowers that become the next phase.  It is after the roots have developed sending water into the plant to allow it to develop a stem system which carries water to form a leaf system which provides food that we begin to see flowers and from that flower comes fruit.  Also from that flower new seeds are produces and the final stage  of plant life is the scattering of the new seed which happens in a variety of ways.  Seeds are scattered by the wind, seeds are scattered by people who harvest them and replant them, seeds are scattered by animals carrying them off., seeds are scattered by fruit that falls to the ground.  As I studied this it amazed me how easily a parallel could be drawn to the Christian Life and this is easily seen by the parallels Jesus makes to the different kinds of soil that seeds can end up in.

            The Parable here tells us that the seed Jesus mentions is the word regarding God’s Kingdom.  Jesus never tells us who the farmer is but he is very detailed in telling us about the different soils.  The different soils he describes represents people, those that hear the news of God’s Kingdom and how they respond to that good news.  As we go through this I want to think of your own faith journey.  What kind of soils have you found yourself in?  What kind of soil are you in now?  The first thing Jesus describes is seed that found it’s way on the path.  I’m imagining this to be a part of the field that is where people walk.  The dirt is packed down and hard from the many feet that pass over it every day.  Jesus tells us that the seed that falls on the path is taken off by the birds.  He explains to his disciples that this soil represents the people who hear the news of God’s Kingdom and do not understand it so what is there lies dormant and eventually what was planted there is carried off.  One of the things I learned about seeds this week is that if they are not in good soil where they receive water then they lie dormant until they receive the water they need.  Nothing happens.  On the path, exposed they run the risk of being carried off by birds or other animals unless someone takes the time and the care to move them to good soil.  Keep that in mind. 

            The next kind of soil Jesus describes is seed that falls on rocky ground.  Rocks prevent seeds from developing roots.  Remember roots are essential for life.  They give life giving water, they hold the plant firmly in the ground.  They keep the soil from washing away.  Jesus explains that this soil represents people who hear the word and immediately receive it joyfully but they have no roots.  Because they have no roots when they experience distress or abuse because of the word, the immediately fall away.  I am reminded of a couple of things when I hear this description.  When I was in the youth group of the church I grew up in we would take a yearly trip to Garden City Beach Retreat in South Carolina where we would spend a week studying the Bible and enjoying each others company at the Beach.  It was a fun trip.  Everything about it was fun.  It never failed on the final night of the trip we would have our final worship time together which was always very emotional.  We had spent the week learning about the goodness of God’s Kingdom.  We had spent the week building and strengthening relationships.  There together we felt like we were invinsible disciples of Christ, nothing could come between us and our relationships with God and each other.  Tears would flow, love was shared, we would come back on top of the world ready to share this great news with anyone who would listen.  But….if each young person was not rooted in the local church, and with supportive families and with supportive friends on the outside of the four walls of that church then this would not, could not last.  Friends on the outside would make fun of them or question them, family members would not insure that they got to church where they could continue to benefit from study and from relationships with other Christians, the church didn’t have a plan for insuring they constantly received the water of life, that they were firmly in the ground, that the soil beneath them didn’t wash away.  They would fall off, never to be seen again.  Keep that in mind.

            The next kind of soil Jesus describes is soil in which the plants are choked out by thorns.  Jesus explains that these are the people who hear the word but the worries of this life and the false appeal of wealth choke the word, and it bears no fruit.  When you let other things take over your mind and your heart it chokes the life out of everything else.  Keep that in mind. 

            Finally Jesus describes good soil.  Good soil is represented by people who hear the word, understand it, bear fruit and produce.  This is the soil that we should strive to be and that we should aim to bring others to.  What does it look like for a person to bear fruit and produce.  Let’s look back at the cycle of the plant. 

            Just like a plant the Christian journey begins by our hearing of the good news of God’s Kingdom, God’s saving grace.  If the soil has been properly prepared then our Christian life begins to take root when like the woman at the well we accept the living water of Jesus Christ.  That living water gets pumped through our veins through what John Wesley calls the means of grace.  Stems begin to develop and the bread of life in Jesus Christ begins to nourish us and bring forth flowers.  And the flowers produce fruit.  Galatians 5:22 tells us what fruit it is that Christians bear.  “The Fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.”  Are you bearing fruit this morning?  If not it might be time to examine the soil.  Finally, with the production of fruit comes the production of more seed.  Through the fruits of the spirit we are able to take the seed, the good news of God’s Kingdom, and scatter it to more people.  We are all called to go and share the good news of God’s love and God’s rein.  In doing so we fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ and the Mission of the United Methodist Church to Go and Make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the World.  To do this we must make sure that we ourselves are rooted in good soil and that we provide good soil where others in the community can find a place to develop roots that receive the living water and the living bread. 

            As I mentioned above we can do this by participating in all the Means of Grace that God has provided us.  For John Wesley these Means of Grace are divided into two broad categories:  Works of Piety and Works of Mercy.  Each of these categories have both individual and communal properties.  There are individual things such as prayer, fasting, searching scripture, helping individuals in need.  There are communal things such as communion, baptism, corporate worship, seeking justice in the world as the body of Christ.  It is my prayer that I can be a leader and servant among you and among the South Macon Community in cultivating good soil where we can all experience the bearing of wonderful fruit.  I hope you will partner with me in this adventure that we may bloom together.  In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew 16:13-20 Sermon Preached for South Macon Charge August 17 and 24, 2014

Matthew 16:13-20

 

            Keys to the Kingdom, binding and loosing, what does all of that mean?  What does it mean that Peter is the rock upon which Jesus builds his church?  What does any of it have to do with me or with you?  Those are the Questions I’ve wrestled with this week and this morning I share with you the fruit of that labor. 

            To better understand this story we need to understand the larger story within which it is placed.  We know that Jesus has been going along teaching his disciples, teaching the crowds, and healing a lot of people.  He has done this among both the Jews and the Gentiles, showing through his example that the Kingdom of God is for all of God’s creation, not just the elect Jews.  This has certainly not made the Religious leaders happy and as we approach this story we know that the Pharisees are seeking a way to charge Jesus with an offense and to discredit him and get rid of him.  In chapter 15 they question why the disciples don’t wash their hands, earlier in this chapter the Pharisees are asking for a sign from heaven.  Jesus tells them again; as he has before that the only sign they are going to receive is the sign of Jonah.  Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, Jesus would be in the belly of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights.  (See Matthew 12:39) Jesus then warns the disciples about the “yeast of the Pharisees.”  Jesus basically tells the disciples these guys don’t have it right, don’t let them corrupt you.  We should remember that the Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day.  It is at this point that we pick up our story today.  This story is a turning point for the story that Matthew rights.  At this point there is a shift from healings and miracles to preparing the disciples for his departure.  He in essence is changing the guard by giving the keys to the kingdom.

            He begins this transition by asking the disciples “who are people saying that I am?”  What is the word in the streets?  Some say Elijah, some say John the Baptist, and others say Jeremiah or other prophets of old.  There is no dispute among the streets that at the very least Jesus is a prophet, a messenger for God.  That being established Jesus asks “who do you say I am?”  Peter, who frequently shows up on the scene as a leader is the first to speak up.  “You are The Christ, The Son of the Living God.”  Peter has gotten it, the disciples have gotten it!  The time has come; Jesus will pass on the Keys of the Kingdom!

            In the tradition of Old Testament Prophets Jesus first Blesses Peter saying “Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah, because no human has shown you this.  Rather, my Father who is in heaven has shown you.” (Matthew 16:17) There is much to learn from that one sentence.  First, John identifies Peter’s father as John.  (John 1:42)  The two names are very close in Aramaic and Matthew uses this to his advantage as he develops this story.  Jonah was a prophet, the same prophet that Matthew writes about earlier in the chapter when Jesus tells the Pharisees that the only sign they will get is the sign of Jonah.  The other thing that is significant is that customarily to call someone the son of a prophet is saying that person is a prophet in training.  Hold onto that for a moment. 

            The next thing that is significant in this blessing of Peter is Jesus saying that Peter is blessed because he got the identity of Jesus through listening to God, not from listening to what others were saying.  Humans don’t always get it right, even preachers get it wrong sometimes.  While it is good to have teachers and advisors, we must never solely depend on what other people say.  We must look at the evidence for ourselves.  We must listen for the spirit of God for ourselves.  We must study for ourselves.  What evidence do you have that Jesus is the Christ, The son of the Living God?

            This one verse has set up Peter as a prophet in training, a prophet that can discern the voice of God.  He is a prophet that has been renamed by Jesus from Simon to Peter, meaning the rock.  Jesus says it is upon this rock that he will build his church.  It is to this prophet that he will give the keys to the kingdom.  What does that mean though?

            When I unlock the door to my house, I am giving myself and others entry into my house.  I’ve been doing that a lot lately with the remodeling of my house.  I was very leery about having a lockbox at my house that a number of people had the combination to.  The lock box contained the keys to my kingdom, to the place I find comfort, the place where I go to heal my wounds, the place where I feed my body and my soul, the place that contains my treasures, my home. By giving up my key I was entrusting another person with all of that.  It was a pretty scary thing.  Jesus is entrusting Peter with so much more.  He is entrusting him with the keys of entry to the kingdom.  He can unlock it and allow entry or he can do as the Pharisees do and lock it tight. They put on so many rules and regulations that persons can’t possibly fulfill them all and the consequence for not fulfilling the requirements…..you get locked out.  Matthew later writes that the Pharisees are Hypocrites because they shut people out of the kingdom of heaven.  Here, by giving Peter the keys to the kingdom, he is changing the guard of religious leadership to Peter and the disciples.  Just what are the keys of the kingdom?

            “Binding and loosening” are the keys to the kingdom.  What in the world does that mean!  All the scholars agree that Jesus is giving Peter the authority to call the shots for the followers of Jesus.  This phrase can be tricky though.  “Whatever you bind in heaven will be loosened on earth; whatever you loosen in heaven shall be bound on earth.  Another way of translating this is “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.”  This reading suggests that Peter’s job is to bind in loosen the kingdom way, the way things are bound and loosened in heaven.  It’s not about who gets in and out.  Jesus is angry with the Pharisees for making entry hard to impossible.   So what is it that Peter is to bind and what is it that he is to loosen?  As I studied the word bind as it is found in scripture, it was used in several ways.  It was used when persons were entering a contract; it was used to mean to tie something or someone up.  It was also used to mean taking those things that are so important for you to remember that you must know them so well that it is as if they were fastened to your body in some form or fashion.  In Deuteronomy we are told that the commandments can be summed up in this manner:  “Love the Lord your God with All your heart, with all your soul and all your might, and your neighbor as yourself.”  We are told to bind these to our forehead, to teach them to our children.  Proverbs tells us that loyalty and faithfulness are virtues we should bind around our necks.  Binding is also used to speak of healing and of unity.  Jesus is frequently referred to as one who binds wounds.  Colossians tells us that love is what binds the body of Christ in perfect unity.  I believe these are things that Jesus wants Peter to bind on earth that has been bound in heaven. 

            Loosening can also have a variety of meanings.  It could mean kicking someone out.  It could mean untying something or unfastening something.  But listen again to our Old Testament reading from this morning from Isaiah 58:6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”  In the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven, this is what gets loosened. 

            So Jesus has passed the keys of the kingdom to Peter giving him the authority to bind and loose.  What does all of this mean to you and me?  Peter was a representative of the Kingdom.  Later in chapter 18 Jesus gives this same authority to all the disciples.  We, the church, are called to carry on the keys to the kingdom.  We are called to bind and loose.  We are called to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our minds and our neighbor as ourselves.  We are called to loose the chains of injustice and untie the yoke of oppression.  Jesus asked Peter, Who people say that I am.  Peter answered by the evidence he had seen and by the voice of God that he heard.  I ask you, who do people say Asbury United (insert the name of your own church) is? Do our neighbors know who we are?  Do our neighbors know the love of Christ because they have seen it in us?  Do those who are oppressed and treated unjustly in our community know that we are a people who will fight to loose those chains of injustice and untie those cords of oppression?  We have the keys to the kingdom.  We’ve been learning for a month and a half what the kingdom is and what it is not.   Are we going to be like Peter and Paul after him and use those keys to open the doors and allow entry or are we going to be like the Pharisees, locking people out of the kingdom?  Jesus built his church on the rock of Peter.  We are that church in this community.  How will we be known?  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,   Amen!